Towards the end of 2002, I got an invitation to visit my friend Wendy in New
Orleans. I'd never been there, so I was keen on it, especially with round trip
airfare available from Sacramento for $170.

I bought the tickets about 2 weeks before the trip, which ended up being two
days after hurricane Isadore had struck. I got plenty of sassy email warning me
to "bring galoshes". I considered my timing pretty choice, but I
quickly learned that another storm was on its way: Hurricane Lili.

I had a great time with Wendy, which means that I didn't have time to write
much, leaving this travelogue to be primarily a group of photos with captions.
Enjoy.

6
months from Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street was a grand outdoor party, with
loud music and drunken crowds.

The streets were narrower than I expected. I had always pictured the
Mardi Gras floats driving down this street, but I guess they don't.

There is a funny bead-based economy here, left over from when Jefferson
bought Manhattan Island for $55 in beads.

It
can be dangerous to dial your phone while driving drunk, so this young woman
laid on the hood instead.

Waiting
for the rooster icon store to open.

My
first taste of Beignets, the famous rectangular donuts of New Orleans.
This place, the Cafe du Monde must use a truckload of powdered sugar each day.

I
was thinking that Bourbon Street needed some kind of mopping superhero to
rid it of that smell.

Sunday, Sept 29, 2002

Wendy
on the balcony of her apartment built for giants. She is at the end of the
first archway.

Two
quarters of my Muffelatta sandwich from Central Grocery. I recommend
having at least 24 ounces of liquid ready to drink before tackling one of
these.

At
the park, while enjoying our Muffelattae, Wendy and I spotted these two
disposable helium tanks. They weren't quite empty.

Back
at her apartment, we filled up some garbage bags with the leftover helium.

I had brought a little black and white security camera
to New Orleans, and seeing these balloons hanging gave me an excellent
idea. We could hang the camera from these balloons and get aerial video
footage of Wendy's neighborhood.

The
garbage bags didn't have enough lift to hoist the camera, so we went down
to Party City and bought a bouquet of balloons.

My dad used to commute 45 minutes from Party City to Circuit City
everyday when he got his first job out of University. Eventually he moved
our family to the Circuit Suburbs. I can't even imagine how my life would
be different if I had grown up outside Party City instead.

In
this photo you can see the tiny camera attached under the balloons with
blue tape. A gray cord carries the video signal to the ground.

UN weapons inspectors called this a "proto-satellite", Jesus
guys, give it a rest, huh?

Connecting
the video signal to a camera with recording capabilities outside of
Wendy's apartment. You can see genuine New Orleans garbage in this photo!